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EBSQ Blogger of the Week: Karen Winters

I’m Karen Winters, a California contemporary impressionist artist. Most of my work is based upon the California landscape and coastal areas, and I travel extensively all over the state to capture its beauty painting outdoors. I use these plein air studies to paint larger studio works. I also travel outside of California to paint, when I can.

How did you get started art blogging?

I began blogging about nine or ten years ago, using Live Journal at first as my blogging platform. Then I installed a custom blog on my own website and I’ve been with that ever since. Art has been a part of my blogging from the very beginning, although in the earliest years I was primarily scanning sketches from my art journal. These days the content of my blog is my oil paintings, with occasional pastels and watercolors.

I paint every day and try to post work several times a week – daily, if I can – but with my travel that’s not always possible. I like to hear from my readers – especially if they have tips for good places to travel and paint. Some of my best discoveries have been from suggestions from my collectors and others who like my work.

Any tips for other EBSQ art bloggers?

My best tips for art bloggers are to work hard, strive for excellence, behave responsibly (don’t badmouth others on your blog) and always watermark your work. I’ve found my paintings “stolen” and displayed on other people’s blogs and websites, but my name is still there to tell the tale and lead a path home to me.

What’s your musical inspiration of choice when you’re working in your studio?

I don’t listen to music as a rule when I paint. When I do, it’s often via Pandora, where I have a number of different stations book-marked. I like music that creates a mood of serenity – light classical, gentle instrumentals, and so forth. Because I have to produce a large number of paintings every year for shows, competitions and commissions, the last thing I need is music that makes me feel agitated or jumpy.

What can we expect to see next from your easel?

Right now I’m working on several large paintings for upcoming juried competitions for exhibition in museum shows and for my November-December 2011 solo show at Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge, CA. And I’m completing several commissions. I don’t show work in progress, but they will be among my larger pieces and will reflect the beauty of California.

If you are an EBSQ Artist and would like to be considered for Blogger of the Week just add us to your blogroll. I’m searching EBSQ profiles weekly for links to artist’s blogs. If you aren’t an EBSQ Artist, what are you waiting for?

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